An even bigger noise…

[1]Above: John Lippincott, formerly of the local blues band Johnny Duke & the Aces, along with David Bromberg, Sam Bush and Jorma Kaukonen on stage jamming to close out Bromberg’s Big Noise in the Neighborhood festival Saturday. (Photo by Joe del Tufo. Check out his shots of all the acts from the day here[2].)

About 3,000 people went to the daylong music festival at Justison Landing Park to benefit the Queen Theatre on Market Street, up from the 2,500 originally estimated on the day of the event.

For $32, music fans from both Delaware and across the region were on the receiving end of nine hours of music starting with Wilmington’s Angel Band, Jorma Kaukonen and Railroad Earth before closing with sets by Sam Bush, John Hiatt and Bromberg himself.

A total amount raised for the Queen from the festival will not be available until later this week, said Light Up the Queen Foundation executive director Bill Taylor, head of the nonprofit organization spearheading the fundraising for the 95-year-old theater.

On the musical side of the festival, which aired live on WXPN 88.5-FM, folk/blues favorite Bromberg said he heard no complaints from his fellow performers. Many came to Wilmington to lend a hand for the first festival ever curated by Bromberg, who moved from Chicago to Wilmington in 2002.

“Everyone talked about what a gorgeous day it was,” Bromberg said, referencing the breezy, 74-degree weather. “And what made me feel really good was that I heard a lot of people commenting to each other about how smoothly run the whole thing was. And it really was extraordinarily smooth. The musicians were all really happy.”

There was only one minor glitch on stage when power was lost for a moment, but that was quickly fixed.

Off stage, the number of food vendors seemed to elicit the most grumbles. Harry’s Seafood Grill and Fat Rick’s Barbeque were the main food vendors, although Dogfish Head was selling gumbo along with their frosty beers. At times, the wait for a pulled pork sandwich or po boy from Fat Rick’s stretched longer than 30 minutes.

Organizers said a few of the food vendors scheduled to work the festival dropped out at the last minute, leading to the problems with supply and demand.

Although there was a wait for food, there was no wait for the music. Unlike most music festivals where artists can run long, pushing back the schedule for the rest of the day’s acts, the Big Noise’s advertised schedule of set times largely stayed intact. “We kept it like clockwork,” said Angel Band’s Nancy Josephson, who not only opened the festival with her band, but also acted as one of the chief organizers along with Taylor.

Josephson, whose band will release its new album, “Bless My Sole,” in July, said a post-mortem meeting is scheduled for Thursday to breakdown what went right and what went wrong for the first-time festival.

If Jefferson Airplane founding member and Hot Tuna leader Jorma Kaukonen had a say about what went right — it would probably include the brisket Josephson made for him at the request of her husband, Bromberg, who had just come off the road with Kaukonen, knowing Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member could use a homemade meal.

After his set Saturday, Kaukonen had nothing but good words about his day in the sun along the Christina River, which ended with him on stage jamming with fellow performers like Sam Bush and Bromberg.

“Don’t get me wrong, getting paid is nice, but I’d do anything for David,” said Kaukonen, whose hour-long set accompanied by multi-instrumentalist Barry Mitterhoff was one of the stand-out performances, featuring Hot Tuna favorites like “99 Year Blues” and “I See the Light.”

Wilmington police reported no arrests or incidents at the festival, which John Rago, communications director for Mayor James M. Baker, said was a boon for the city.

“It was wonderful exposure for Wilmington throughout the region and, frankly, WXPN’s signal capacity,” said Rago, who attended the festival. “It had a great atmosphere with wonderful music and people who just seemed to have fun from beginning to end. And you can’t ask for more than that.”

If the $25 million renovation project remains on track, the Queen Theatre should be preparing to open its doors around this time next year. The city’s newest music venue, to be called World Cafe Live at the Queen, is a spin-off of the five-year-old Philadelphia-based World Cafe Live.

So will there be a Bromberg’s Big Noise in the Neighborhood II? Josephson said no decision has been made.

“Bill [Taylor] and I were joking that if we were still talking to each other at the end of the day, we might consider it,” she said. “If we do it, my guess is we’ll be getting calls from agents rather than us chasing them down.”